The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) yesterday blamed the Giwa-led faction of the federation for its inability to pay its coaches’ salaries. The federation also explained the process to the refurbishing of its new secretariat, the Sunday Dankaro House, which budget has attracted criticism from the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung.

In a statement signed by its Media and Publicity Committee Chairman, Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande, the NFF said its bankers were stopped from crediting the coaches’ salaries into their accounts by a letter from the Giwa-led faction, which claimed that the federation had no right to order such payments.

The statement said: “The truth, which the Honourable Minister himself explained to the media in Abuja a couple of weeks ago, is that the money the NFF gets from government does not include coaches’ salaries. The NFF pays the coaches from money received from sponsorship, which was not designed by the current NFF Board; it is a practice we met on ground.

“We have the money to pay the coaches. The NFF sent the mandates to the banks to pay the coaches about two weeks ago, but the Giwa group wrote to the banks to say they had a court order, which in itself is criminal and untenable. There is NO court order telling Giwa he is president of NFF; it is very important to make that clarification. We have called on the Honourable Minister to call these fellows to order, but we are resolving the matter with the banks so that the coaches can get their salaries,” Yahaya-Kwande, who is a ranking member of the House of Representatives, said.

On the work at the Sunday Dankaro House, the statement said the tenders board approved it “following the one hundred per cent compliance with due process, the NFF should pay the sum of N27 million as part payment of mobilisation fee to the contractors handling the renovation of the Federation’s new headquarters.

“The money was not for ‘painting;’ we have to put that on record. It is part–payment of mobilisation fee for the extensive renovation works.
“There is a new policy direction in the NFF whereby every money we receive, even from our partners and sponsors, we inform the Honourable Minister and also inform our auditors (PriceWaterHouse Coopers) and our financial consultants (Financial Derivatives). This is in line with our vision to entrench transparency and accountability in the Federation.”

The statement also said the federation was yet to receive money from the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports with regards to the African Nations Cup qualifying matches between the Super Eagles and the Pharaohs of Egypt, played in Kaduna and Alexandria last month.

It said the sum of N480 million released by the ministry to the NFF was part of the monies approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for Nigeria’s participation in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile 2015, the Super Eagles’ 2018 World Cup qualifying matches against Swaziland, the U-23 National Team’s participation in the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations in Senegal and the Super Eagles’ participation in the African Nations Championship, Rwanda 2016.”